Free Republic

Campaigning for the Senate in 2012, former Harvard law professor cum left-wing populist Elizabeth Warren touched down in North Carolina and told voters, “The game is rigged.” She was more right than she knew. As it turns out, North Carolina’s Democratic senator was doing some of the rigging. Now, Kay Hagan’s political future may depend on how voters react to the story. Hagan’s vote for the 2009 stimulus, coupled with revelations that the legislation resulted in taxpayer funding for her family’s businesses, has emerged as an October surprise in a race hitherto marked by her unexpected resilience in a difficult...

Not again! After being for a travel ban, then changing her position to say such restrictions would not work, Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) is back on board with a travel ban. “I am calling on the Administration to temporarily ban the travel of non-U.S. citizens from the affected countries in West Africa,” Hagan, who is running for reelection,

North Carolina Republican Senate candidate Thom Tillis is launching a new television ad Friday suggesting his opponent personally profited from the 2009 stimulus law. The 30-second spot notes that Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan’s husband co-owns a company that received nearly $390,000 in federal grants for energy projects and tax credits created by the stimulus. “She’s 96 percent for [Barack] Obama, 100 percent for herself,” says a narrator. The ad will air statewide and comes as the National Republican Senatorial Committee is investing $6.5 million more in the Tar Heel State. “Days after Kay Hagan took office, she pushed Obama’s stimulus...

When the North Carolina State Assembly set out to pass a resolution in 2007 expressing the body’s regret for its participation in the institution of slavery, conservatives objected on the grounds that black North Carolinians would use it to advance the cause of reparations. Republican Assemblyman Thom Tillis, who is now challenging Democrat Kay Hagan for her U.S. Senate seat, sought to allay those conservatives' concerns by flipping the argument. Reparations already exist in the form of welfare programs, he noted, and Republicans would be better positioned to oppose them if they purchased some goodwill with conservative Democrats by acknowledging...

Tuesday’s second debate between U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and state House Speaker Thom Tillis picked up right where the candidates left off when they met last month, but with far more vigorous and direct criticism of each other.

Solar company formed weeks before Chip Hagan's business received grant. RALEIGH — Sen. Kay Hagan’s husband and son created a solar energy contracting company in August 2010, and then, using $250,644 in federal stimulus grant funds, her husband hired that same company to install solar panels at a building he owns. Public records show that Green State Power was formed seven weeks before JDC Manufacturing — a company owned in part by Greensboro attorney Charles “Chip” Hagan III, Sen. Hagan’s husband — received the stimulus grant for the solar project at a 300,000-square-foot facility in Reidsville, N.C. ... Hagan, a...

Some Republicans and Tea Partiers in and around Moore County are launching a “Clothespin Challenge.” One of the organizers posted this on her Facebook Page: (SNIP) So, the predominant GOTV strategy this year is ”hold your nose” and mark the box next to the GOP candidate’s name? Is that what we’ve become? From Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan and Jesse Helms’s appeals for liberty and freedom and limited government to HOLD YOUR NOSE?

We posted earlier about the Fox News poll of this race. Digging into the cross-tabs led us to discover a really interesting stat. Hagan, the Democrat, is drawing 33 percent of the white vote — which can be expected for a Democrat candidate in this state and this day and age. Democrats tend to make up for that deficit with a huge turnout by blacks and other minorities. The astonishing thing is that Tillis, the Republican, is only drawing 45 percent of the white vote.

Sources agopvstre telling us that emissaries from the DC Republican establishment had a sit-down with NC Tea Party activists in The Queen City Tuesday evening. Roughly a dozen activists — most of whom were closely affiliated with Greg Brannon’s primary campaign for the US Senate — met with two individuals identifying themselves as Republican National Committee operatives at the Taco Mac sports bar near South Park Mall. “They wanted to know where we might find some common ground,” on Tea Party-affiliated attendee told us. “They said they understood there was some heartburn among Tea Partiers about the GOP and Thom...

I communicate regularly with a number of elected officials at the state and local levels across North Carolina. The drive-bys have been speculating about WHO among the Democrat candidates would welcome Barry Obama swinging by for some campaign help. I decided to pose a similar question to some GOP incumbents and candidates who will be on the ballot in 2014: Who would you like to have campaign with you? I asked one Republican legislator if he would like to have Gov. Pat McCrory campaign with him. “Pardon my French,” the legislator responded. “But, Hell No!” I asked the same thing...

.....Obama will be in the Queen City Tuesday to address the 96th annual convention of the American Legion which is underway in uptown Charlotte this week. Air Force One is expected to touch down at about 11:20 a.m. and the President will be speaking around 12 p.m.

Republican challenger Thom Tillis has pushed slightly further ahead of Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely North Carolina Voters shows Tillis earning 45% support to Hagan’s 40%. Six percent (6%) prefer another candidate in the race, and nine percent (9%) are undecided.

Rasmussen Reports — a polling firm with close ties to Karl Rove and the Bush political organization – has released their “latest” polling on the North Carolina US Senate race. It purports to show Republican Thom Tillis at 45 percent, Kay Hagan at 40 percent, 6 percent for “Other” and 9 percent “Undecided.” (SNIP) The only polls I’ve seen showing Tillis ahead are these Rasmussen surveys, and one from Civitas right after the May primary. Just two days ago, Civitas releases a poll showing Hagan leading Tillis by TWO. Tillis is also woefully behind Hagan in fundraising. And the DC...

U. S. Sen. Kay Hagan makes a direct pitch to voters in her campaign’s new TV ad, describing herself as a moderate who fits with North Carolina’s split political loyalties. “One of the things I love about North Carolina is that unless you’re talking basketball, you don’t have to pick a team,” the Democratic incumbent says in the 30-second spot that began airing Tuesday. “That’s how I get results for folks here at home. Republican or Democrat, if an idea works for middle class families – I am all for it.” In the kicker, Hagan says she’s “not too far...

The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act is waiting in the US Senate for a vote. Last week, before the House voted on it, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann went to the floor of the House and said parent consent should be required. But it passed without consent requirements. Now, the U.S. Senate is planning to vote on the Houseʼs newborn screening bill and send it to the President. The Senate wants to hotline it, but we want to stop it unless it has written informed parent consent for the government storage, use, analysis, and sharing of newborn DNA. Call your Senators...

As Kay Hagan, a Democratic senator from North Carolina, pondered her reelection campaign this year, she faced an array of possible Republican opponents. . . . . Hagan, in a ploy Democratic candidates have increasingly employed in recent years, waded right in. She used her campaign funds to run anti-Tillis ads on conservative talk-radio stations and send mailers that targeted Republican households. The ads attacked Tillis on ethics and for having once said Obamacare was "a great idea" (Tillis says he was being sarcastic). . . . Patriot Majority was styled to seem like a Tea Party group, with its...

Powerful Democratic senators are considering including a measure in the Senate’s defense authorization bill that would offer legal status to young undocumented immigrants who join the military. With a similar effort in the House stalled, the Senate might provide a new opportunity for immigration advocates. But some senators are warning that including the proposal could sink the annual defense bill, one of the few must-pass bills remaining in Congress.

SharpRightTurn, Public Policy Polling (PPP) just released their latest poll for North Carolina. And the results are phenomenal: Tillis 18% Brannon 15% Harris 11% Grant 7% Alexander 6% Bradshaw 5% Snyder 2% As you can see, the race is now a statistical dead heat -- and I'm within the margin of error of my establishment-backed opponent. SharpRightTurn, thanks to your generous support, our voter outreach program is working, and the momentum is clearly on our side. With less than 30 days until the May 6 Republican Primary, victory is within our reach. But time is running out for you and...

**SNIP** “This current path is unsustainable, and we must take steps now to slow and stop the effects of climate change.” Hagan also brought out her own record as a state senator, and said she was proud of it. She mentioned that she had supported a mandatory renewable energy standard and a law that required emissions reductions from coal-fired power plants. She also cited efforts in North Carolina to develop clean energy technology. Hagan wrapped up with a call for Democrats and Republicans to work together on “commonsense measures” on energy, without spelling out what that might be. Congress hasn’t...

**SNIP** The distraction of Ukraine and the media’s numbness to the stream of Obamacare travails is providing time and a smokescreen for Obama to prepare a big announcement for after March 31, 2014: The BIG PUNT, i.e. a delay in the individual mandate. The White House and their Democratic allies must realize that they are on a trajectory to lose the Senate in 2014 and are likely coming to terms with the idea that delaying the individual mandate is one way to attempt to change that path. Look for the president to bite the bullet and give in to the...